While we're at it, perhaps we should now note our ten worst films--a task much harder than it seems. To qualify, these have to be movies you actually saw from beginning to end (or at least really attempted to), ideally in a theater where the thought of having flushed good money down the toilet makes the experience especially unnerving.
In no particular order:
Congo - Having a device that allows a gorilla to communicate in English does not suddenly make the gorilla act or think like a normal human being. That and the scene where the "gorilla" is strapped to a parachutist. I saw this one in a theater.
Cannonball Run II - I genuinely enjoyed the first one. Sadly, I cannot say the same for the sequel, which included the separately taped segment with Frank Sinatra and the montage to the music of ... Menudo.
Problem Child - If the aim of this movie (or its sequels) was to have me wish ill towards the kid, it worked. I don't care why he's a lousy brat. I used to confuse Problem Child with Child's Play. Difference is, I'd welcome the doll to my home any day.
Out on a Limb - Who knows what Matthew Broderick saw in the script. The leading lady is rather unappealing. Couldn't even tell you about the plot. Simply a horrible film.
Little Buddha - At one point, Keanu Reeves, playing Siddhartha, is sporting a bouffant.
Hercules - It starred Lou Ferrigno. I saw it in the theater. I was only ten. I didn't know! I was just a child!
Those were just six and I am wiped out. Galley friend Mike Woody lists Caddy Shack II, She Devil (starring Roseanne Barr), Casualties of War, Ishtar, and "anything with Jean-Claude Van Damme except Bloodsport. That was rich."
Finally, in terms of great disappointments, no doubt I would have to place The Godfather Part III on top.
5 hours ago
24 comments:
Vic,
You omit Highlander II only because you're afraid to admit you saw it. As am I.
Oh, the shame.
Bill
I think A.I. was the very worst movie I've ever seen - it was so bad and yet thought that it was so good.
I with Bill Simmons the Sports Guy...
Rocky V never happened, I don't care if my wallet said I spent $6.00 to go see it.... IT NEVER HAPPENED
oh but Wild Amazon Women on the Moon? Defitnitly happened
Mike
Didn't see it in the theatre, but I did pay to rent it. The worst movie I've ever spent money on is Kenneth Branagh's musical version of Love's Labour's Lost. Sat there with my mouth open through probably 90% of it.
Hitch. I wanted to claw my eyes out. No, it wasn't my choice.
The Avengers (1998)
Secret Window (2004)
Superman IV (1987)
Showgirls, baby.
It's unbelievably horrible, but I stay on it every time I catch it whilst channel surfing.
The reason I do might stem from my crush on Gina Gershon.
Dude. Holy Man with Eddie Murphy and Jeff Goldblum. Also, Van Helsing.
Any man who thinks the warriors is a bad movie must turn in his testicles and watch the PBS Pride and Prejudice 15 times in a row wiht no alcohol. Worst movies seen in a theatre, Highlander 4; Elizabeth(they dont' tell you there is no Spanish Armada and the Protestant maniac is some kind of religious freedom icon); The Nightporter-Nazi bell boy meets old camp girl and they have a sado masochistic relationship. This was sold to me as a murder mystery when I was 17 by an idiot whose initials are S.C. The worst movie in general release of all time. I would watch Batman and Robin 5 times in a row before I would look at a promotional poster of this movie.
Meet the Parents. Stiller is the most overrated hack in the world. This kind of slapstick makes the Three Stooges seem subtle.
Transylvania 65000 (with Jeff Goldblum), The American President (the sterotype portrayal of the evil republican candidate badgering the intelligent, above-the-fray Democrat incumbent). Anything I've ever seen with Chuck Norris, TimeCop with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, Last Action Hero with Arnold and most recently Must Love Dogs with John Cusack,... simply wretched.
You've got to distinguish between campy-bad, whcih can be entertaining (like the Warriors) and serious-bad, which is brutal, and which I think we are taling about here. To be a truly bad movie, you had to have thought you were making a good, even profound, movie and failed miserably, usually as a result of scene chewing over-acting or extreme heavy-handedness in the message-sending dep't. That's why even though I agree with the likes of Caddyshack II, Look Who's talking Now etc..., it is sort of pointless to include those movies.
Examples I can think of that I have seen recently on cable:
Spanglish
Pay it Forward
Contact
Magnolia
battlefield earth (may be campy bad, close call, but travolta was big whent his was made, so it probably was meant to be taken seriously)
Gangs of New York
Artificial Intelligence
Shadow Of The Vampire
I Heart Huckabees
The Life Aquatic
The life being exeptionally disappointing because the Royal Tennanbaum's was so gosh-darn good.
No "Get Carter?" When promoting the film, Stallone said it was his best work since Rocky. Terrible dialogue, convoluted plot, tons of arty camera angles, and not bad enough to be even accidentally funny (like, e.g., Judge Dredd).
Oh, in addition to "Get Carter," you should think about "Daredevil." A wretched film, and perhaps the only movie I've seen with a flirt fight. Best line of the movie (during the flirt fight, of course): "You're holding back. Don't." I'd rather rub sh*t in my hair than watch that movie again.
Star Wars Episodes 1,2,3
Ditto on Star Wars Episodes 1 and 2. Couldn't make myself watch 3 after the prior two experiences.
Just in the last year, "The Ring 2" and "Land of the Dead" stand out. I'm not sure what I was watching in those cases, but my nephew concocts better plots when playing with his Star Wars toys.
Christ, how I hated those two movies.
I'm always one for naming the critics' darlings that I hate. HATE. A few:
Seconding Anony, 10:46am -- Contact. Dear God. Having to stare at Jodie Foster's teary, quivery face while she whispers, "It's beautiful, it's beautiful..." I wanted to punch her.
Run Lola Run. Oh, hooray, a German can ape Tarantino-ish crap. Speaking of which...
Kill Bill. Oh, hooray, Tarantino can pretend he's 13.
The Usual Suspects. I know this appeared on a couple Top 10 lists here, but I'm sorry. Noir posing and crappy dialogue leading up to a crime-writers' convention ending do not a top-10 movie make.
You Got Mail. Someone punch Nora Ephron. (Side note: So, the big point in the first couple acts -- and abandoned without a trace so Tom and Meg can hook -- is that jumbo chains crowd out the good-guy boutiques, right? But either Hanks or Ryan appear inside a damn STARBUCKS every couple of frames! Are you kidding me?!) Maybe not a critics' darling, but I just had to get that off my chest.
Lost in Translation. A misanthropic Bill Murray and snotty Scarlet Johannson mope around Tokyo and condescend to Japanese. Hooray.
Rashomon. Wow, superb insight: people don't tell the truth and don't remember things the way they actually happened. The only time people aren't sitting around jabbering, they're screaming and jumping around with swords.
A Canadian movie from 1972 or thereabouts called ``The Reincarnate''; incomprehensible plot and wooden acting. The audience cheered at the sight of a streetcar traveling along Queen Street - didn't take much to get Toronto audiences excited in those days. Maybe it still doesn't.
The other was``Backdraft.''
Both of these movies were anti-masterpieces of tedium - heavy and dull, dull, dull.
"Bobby Deerfield," starring Al Pacino and directed by Sydney Pollack. This is a very bad movie. Here is a fairly typical Amazon review, from "A Viewer:"
"How do people come to understand each other in a new relationship and overcome the obstacles that are largely their own creation? One of the two knows something and is trying to help the other go beyond his limitations so they can be together on the terms she is compelled to follow. Their struggle and the beautiful European countryside settings made this an engrossing and rewarding experience for me. I also enjoyed the feel of the "culture of Europe." Also, I don't believe I saw anyone shot. or a gun at all"
"The Warriors -- a bunch of street thugs break out of Vidal Sassoon's salon and fight it out on the subway"
You will now turn into a pillar of salt.
The Piano. Hated, hated HATED it!!
Critics loved it - said it had deep feminist meaning. All I say is, Harvey Keitel, put your clothes back on now!!!
The Order. Heath Ledger as a traditionalist Catholic priest (pause for laughter here) who, for no apparent reason, starts traveling with a young woman (who once tried to kill him) and then turns into a "sin-eater" who is dedicated to undermining the church.
and
Godsend. No words to describe how awful this one was.
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